Financial Planning & Analysis Analyst

Northwestern Mutual; Milwaukee (WI); On-site; USD 65,000 - 98,000; Full time

Job summary

Northwestern Mutual is seeking a finance professional to collect, analyze, and report financial data to support management decisions. You will build models, develop forecasts and budgets, and collaborate with senior leaders to drive expense management and strategic planning.

You will interact with divisional leaders, provide actionable insights, and ensure GAAP-compliant accounting. Strong communication and analytical skills are essential in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required in accounting, finance, business administration, or related field.
• Typically three or more years of financial management and/or financial planning and analysis experience.
• Strong analytical, planning, budgeting, problem solving, and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Monitor spend, develop forecasts and budgets, and analyze expense results across the enterprise.
• Prepare ad hoc analyses and recurring financial reports and dashboards for leadership.
• Build financial models and support special projects to forecast and understand business performance.
• Understand cost drivers, unit costs, variance analysis, and expense benchmarking to track results.
• Challenge assumptions in forecasts and ensure proper accounting controls and GAAP compliance.

Skills

Attention to Detail

Cross Functional Partnering & Planning

Expense Reporting Management

Financial Acumen

Financial Analysis

Financial Forecasting

Process Improvement

Process Mindset

Storytelling Through Data

Education

Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business administration, or related degree

Job description

About the Job

Support the Company's overall product value and financial strength by collecting, analyzing, and reporting financial data that helps management make informed business decisions. Collaborate with business partners and build financial models to evaluate strategic decisions, provide financial analysis, develop forecasts and budgets, and compare expectations to peers and/or internal expectations. Utilize analytical skills to evaluate, present, and prioritize options and solutions for business partners. May interact with divisional or department leaders and other members of senior management to provide meaningful expense management consultation and analysis and presents recommendations to aid in decision-making.

What You'll Do

Consult with business partners across the enterprise to monitor spend, develop forecasts and budgets, and analyze expense results. Analyze variances between actual and planned results Assist with the preparation of ad hoc analyses and recurring financial reports and dashboards to clearly communicate forecast results to finance and business leadership. Build financial models and support special projects to predict and understand the business as well as actual results. Understand cost drivers, internal metrics, unit costs, variance analysis and expense benchmarking for tracking and comparing results. Challenge assumptions made in forecasts and projections. Assure that all expense activity follows the appropriate accounting controls, policies and procedures and is appropriately accounted for on the general ledger in compliance with statutory and/or GAAP accounting standards.

What Experience You'll Bring

Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business administration, or related degree. Typically three or more years of financial management experience and/or financial planning and analysis experience. Strong analytical, planning, budgeting, problem solving, oral and written communication skills.

Skills

• Attention to Detail: Focuses on specific details to spot and correct errors in advance of them being found and surpass quality expectations. Performs work with thorough proofreading for presentation, content, accuracy, and overall quality.
• Cross Functional Partnering & Planning: Facilitates collaboration, communication, coordination, and planning with individuals and teams from different functions within the organization, and who have different areas of expertise, to achieve common goals.
• Expense Reporting Management: Tracks and documents operational and other related costs by recording and classifying expenses to monitor and control costs, assess budget adherence, and evaluate efficiency of resource utilization.
• Financial Acumen: Applies knowledge of financial statements, financial analysis, budgeting, forecasting, and financial modeling to ensure decisions are fiscally sound and responsible.
• Financial Analysis: Analyzes balance sheet and income statement accounts for accuracy, uses operational indicators and actuarial information for analysis, interprets financial statements, draws conclusions, and makes financial recommendations.
• Financial Forecasting: Predicts and estimates future financial outcomes based on historical data, current trends, and informed assumptions, using appropriate forecasting methods for different scenarios.
• Process Improvement: Assesses current processes and their impact to analyze, design, and manage improvement opportunities for more efficient and effective workflows.
• Process Mindset: Defines processes to organize people, activities, and milestones; creates efficient workflows and success measures; identifies integration opportunities; and simplifies complex processes.
• Storytelling Through Data: Communicates insights and opportunities from a dataset using narratives, visualizations, and analysis.

#LI-Hybrid Compensation Range:

Pay Range - Start: $65,440.00 Pay Range - End: $98,160.00 Geographic Specific Pay Structure: Structure 110: $72,000.00 USD - $108,000.00 USD Structure 115: $75,280.00 USD - $112,920.00 USD

We believe in fairness and transparency. It’s why we share the salary range for most of our roles. However, final salaries are based on a number of factors, including the skills and experience of the candidate; the current market; location of the candidate; and other factors uncovered in the hiring process.

The standard pay structure is listed but if you’re living in California, New York City or other eligible location, geographic specific pay structures, compensation and benefits could be applicable.

Grow your career with a best-in-class company that puts our clients' interests at the center of all we do.

Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes talented individuals of all backgrounds.

We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.

Northwestern Mutual, we believe relationships are built on trust. That our lives and our work matter. These beliefs launched our company over 160 years ago. Today, they're just a few of the reasons why people choose to build careers at Northwestern Mutual.

What started in Milwaukee, WI has grown into 7,000+ home office professionals split across 3 campuses: New York City, Franklin and downtown Milwaukee (HQ) - each one bringing with it its own unique talent and culture.

In a company with such a long and storied history, this may be the most exciting and important time to be a part of Northwestern Mutual as we are growing our digital and tech capabilities and are always on the lookout for bright, tech-savvy candidates.

Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes talented individuals of all backgrounds.

We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.